1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste liquid treatment apparatus, and more particularly, to a waste liquid treatment apparatus which enhances treatment capacity due to an increase in the number of submerged ultra-filtration membranes (hereinafter referred to as “submerged membranes”) installed within a solid/liquid separator of a pre-treatment facility of a liquid radioactive waste treatment system for a nuclear power plant, improves convenience of exchange of the used submerged membranes, and reduces radiation exposure of an operator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Submerged membranes are applied to pretreatment equipment of liquid radioactive waste (radwaste) systems of some nuclear power plants.
Such submerged membranes are installed within solid/liquid separators to primarily process introduced radwastes.
Such a submerged membrane serves to remove turbidity-causing material, and organic and inorganic suspended solids in a radwaste liquid.
In a treatment process of a submerged membrane, permeated water is suctioned by forming a vacuum state of a certain range in a permeated pipe, aeration is continuously performed through an air diffuser below a submerged membrane to restrict a filter plugging phenomenon of the submerged membrane, and backwashing is periodically performed.
However, in the conventional waste liquid treatment apparatus, since submerged membranes are linearly disposed in a solid/liquid separator, the number of installed submerged membranes is limited.
Also, in the conventional waste liquid treatment apparatus, when used submerged membranes are exchanged, an upper cover of the solid/liquid separator is opened, and after connectors between the suction openings of the submerged membranes and air introduction openings of air diffusers are released in a state in which an operator enters a water tank and is close to the submerged membranes where radioactive particles being condensed, the used submerged membranes are removed through an upper portion of the water tank. However, in the above-mentioned method of exchanging the submerged membranes, it is not easy to exchange the submerged membranes and an operator is directly exposed to radioactive rays, causing excessive radiation exposure to the operator.
Moreover, in the conventional waste liquid treatment apparatus, submerged membranes are positioned on a fixed porous support plate and a separate fixing unit is installed to fix the submerged membranes in the solid/liquid separator. However, in this case, since the heights of the installable submerged membranes are fixed, submerged membranes of various heights cannot be installed, causing much time to be consumed in attaching and detaching the submerged membranes and making it difficult to operate the apparatus.